And he's already up!

And at 'em.

I have got to get the move to the jobsite completed so I can get some rest!

I am waiting on insurance cards so I can get an annual inspection for BS 2. I had asked for one Wednesday and again on Saturday but so far, no card.

Krl and I had a pretty productive day. I would say that the office is ninety-five percent loaded. I only lack breaking down her computer, grabbing the wireless router and loading a rolling file cabinet. We did a non-spaz kind of day and worked in spurts. Krl took a break and clipped some on dogs. I had to help by holding Maple Syrple. She is so ticklish she can't stand for you to touch the pads on her feet and getting clipped is almost too much. Krl has done a good job and we are hopeful that they won't need clipping again until we come back home.

I am trying to get my day and week planned. It may consist of working in town this morning, taking BS 2 to Roscoe in the afternoon and then returning with a driver to pickup BS 222 and the company trailer late in the day. That would make it possible for me to travel to St. Lawrence Tuesday morning with the last bumper pull trailer and for the truck driver to follow with the big trailer, drop it and then double back and get BS 2 and the supply trailer while I set up camp. Then we would leave BS 2 and he would ride back to Abilene with me to get BS 22. That would get most of the large items moved west and give us three days to work a run to Midland in the plan. My last trip out will probably be loaded with frills like freezer, extra refrigerator, some shelving material and an air compressor.

Hey, we've learned that if we have to be isolated out there we need to make it easy on ourselves.

It may not be exciting for you but we are excited because they now have ice at the jobsite. In the past you bought twice ice as much as you needed while you were in town because half of it was going to melt before you made the trip back to camp!

Krl has been working on a few projects, both personal and work related. She has been looking at consolidating all of our communications accounts with a single vendor. She says that it will be a minimum savings of fifty dollars per month. She has also been trying to get new company cell phones. Our cell phone service provider is a very small company that just happened to land a protected area that they have now used in dealing with other cellular providers for trade offs. They let the larger companies use their protected area and the large companies let them use theirs. The old you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. Problem is, service sucks. Dropped calls, busy circuits, you name it. And it hasn't gotten any better. I have been in need of a new phone for quite a while. Mine has been dropped, kicked, or thrown so many times that it no longer phases it. You have seen the phones that are clear and you can see the guts inside? That's my phone but it isn't clear, those are holes in the case! My voice mail doesn't work (although it never worked well).

The company had received a notice from a cellular provider saying free phones, and pre-approval. Sounds simple doesn't it. A coverage check proved that this company probably has the best coverage for the jobsite location. Sounds like three pluses to me. Krl called them and talked with a person and everything was wonderful. We could keep our phone numbers, we just needed to decide which plan we need. Krl got all the information so we could discuss it and told them she would call them back the following day. Turns out when we made the decision and she called back, she got another person and that person was not a good person. All the sudden the account was not pre-approved, they wanted a deposit of eight hundred dollars because the company has limited credit references (because they try to pay as you go) and the company does not have a Dunn and Bradstreet rating. It didn't matter that the company pays it's ninety thousand dollar monthly fuel bill weekly which actually appears to be a pre-paid expense on monthly statements. It didn't matter that other references range from a few hundred dollars to several thousand. Now the phones were free "after rebate". But the thing that got my drawers in a wad was this new girl told Krl we COULD NOT keep our old numbers. For me this is a deal breaker. Krl was talking to the girl on one phone and to me on another and I should have been on television because I snapped out "No Deal". (Howie would have been proud). Krl tried to call back and talk with her initial contact but had no luck.

Call me a fuddy duddy but my cell phone number was mine before the company assumed the bill. It is the ONLY cell number I have ever had! Same for Krl. I don't want to change numbers, it is just that simple. Nothing peeved me more than when our area code was changed. How many business cards, letter heads, invoices, and other printed material were no longer correct. Besides, I know my old cell phone number as do countless contacts.

Saturday afternoon, Krl walked by the answering machine and saw it blinking. When she pushed the play button she heard a message from the cell phone provider she had been talking with. "Your new phones have shipped. Please activate them by dialing your assigned number". I wonder which part of "No" they didn't understand. We have no idea what number they are referring to. We couldn't believe a sales person would have the audacity to call and leave a message like that. The service had been inquired about but not authorized. This could get out of hand. I guess we have run across the hard sell. I hope that girl hasn't spent her commission of this sale.

I wonder if they are going to want an early termination fee if we don't ever activate their phones?

Even I could sell phone service to an answering machine.

Lots of good football today, also an excellent NASCAR race. I'll go on record as saying I am pulling for the Colts to win the Super Bowl, Jeff Gordon to win the Nextel Cup, Auburn to win the NCAA Championship (but only because Miami is out), and I could give a rip who wins the world series (My world series was at Williamsport).

I can't believe Abilene High is still looking for their first win of the season. Even more unbelievable is that Lubbock Monterey is undefeated. The mighty Plowboys got humbled (but that may be exactly what they need to go deep into the playoffs. Abilene Christian High School played the Garden City Bearkats Friday night (the Bearkats are the closest high school team to the Fall jobsite). The Bearkats beat ACHS 66 to 16 in three quarters before the game was called.

Nothing brings a community together like a successful season.

I will mention that the Super Dome hosts Monday Night Football tonight. Lots of hullabaloo. Commentators talk about giving the people of New Orleans something to cheer about. I realize this is a milestone. I realize this is a big blip on the screen of rebuilding New Orleans. But there is so much need on a much smaller individual scale that will never receive the attention the Super Dome project did. A lot more people were affected than the hundred thousand that might pack the stadium tonight. For a lot of people it's not about sports. It's about living.

FATHER, oh to be like YOU.